The Art Remains

As I sat down to write this post, I was torn between whether or not Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness can actually be considered a racist work of literature. It was not until reading Chinua Achebe’s article “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness” that I even considered the subject. Initially, I viewed Marlow’s comments about and descriptions of the natives as the mere observations of a sheltered European man. My reasoning for this comes from my understanding that the Europeans during that particular time period viewed Africans in a collective (and negative) way, thus causing Marlow to be a mere product of his society and their morals. Marlow’s descriptions of the native Africans as savage, his interpretation of their speech, and his use of derogatory terms are all what I perceived to be the result of Marlow’s upbringing in a sheltered and opinionated European culture. While reading, I presumed that Marlow’s thoughts and actions regarding the native Africans were innocent observations and not the result of harsh feelings toward another race. Achebe argues in his speech that Conrad portrays the native African culture resembling a frenzy and uses this passage to support his claim: “...a burst of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a mass of hands clapping, of feet stamping, of bodies swaying, of eyes rolling under the droop of heavy and motionless foliage. The steamer toiled along slowly on the edge of a black and incomprehensible frenzy.” As I have mentioned several times, this seemed to me to be a sheer observation of an uninformed European rather than a statement meant to insult because their is no direct attack upon the Africans or their culture.

However, I can definitely recognize and understand Chinua Achebe’s belief that Conrad’s Heart of Darkness takes on an aura of racism throughout. One particular section of the novella that Achebe mentions that jumped out to me as being seemingly racist is as follows: “A black figure stood up, strode on long black legs, waving black arms...” After pointing out this quotation, Achebe the goes on to say, “...as though we might expect a black figure striding along on black legs to wave white arms!” It does seem quite excessive of Marlow/Conrad to repeatedly mention the color of this person’s skin. This obsessive need to comment on skin color is what made me question whether or not this was a simple statement of truth or a way to distinguish the difference between the native Africans and the imperialist Europeans. If it was a manner of distinguishing the two races, then I believe that I can consider Heart of Darkness to be a work of racism.

Yet, I am still very unsure of Conrad’s specific intentions when describing the natives of the Congo river region. I feel as though it is a bit unfair to pinpoint Conrad - or anyone, for that matter - as a racist without completely knowing his motives for writing the novella and understanding his own personal experiences when traveling the Congo river. Before I conclude, I would like to touch upon Achebe’s belief that Heart of Darkness is not a work of art; “And the question is whether a novel which celebrates this dehumanization, which depersonalizes a portion of the human race, can be called a great work of art. My answer is: No, it cannot.” Achebe makes it extremely clear that he is offended by Conrad’s novella, but I do not believe that it is correct to judge this piece of literature as not being worthy to be named a work of art. There is a multitude of works of art that have been considered to have the effect of dehumanization, but the quality of art and freedom of expression is still present. Art is art, no matter if it is offensive.

Overall, I have yet to come to a conclusion on the question of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness as being a racist work of literature, but I am quite positive that it remains a work of art.